This boss promises to pay college tuition for his employees’ children

Under the programme, employees will see four year tuition of their children taken care of by Huang

Chieh Huang, the chief executive officer (CEO) of New York based company Boxed, which sells bulk household goods, has told his employees that he will pay their kids' college tuition.

A few weeks ago, Huang said he would set aside a double-digit percentage of his personal stake in the company to make good on his word.

"I actually don't think of it as a perk," he said in an interview, given benefits will be done by his own pocket rather than company funds, as well as investors whom he's asked to contribute. "I tell them I love that you're investing in me and us, but you have to value the employees as much as me."

“If you're along with us for a ride, you deserve us investing back in you and your family's upward mobility,"

Under the programme, employees who chose to work in the company before it goes public, will see four year tuition of their children taken care of by Huang. There will be no eligibility criteria in term on tuition duration.

Of the nearly 100 employees in the company, they can only boast just 12 children.

Huang's personal share in the company is valued between $1 million - $2 million. Further, he has formed a nonprofit foundation in which he invested some of his own money.

While exact details are murky, there may still be tax implications for employees who’ll avail the grant.

While many companies help with tuition assistance for employees (like Starbucks and Fiat Chrysler), funding employees' kids is far less common.

Only 17 per cent of corporations offer scholarships for employees' family members, according to Bruce Elliott, the manager of compensation and benefits for the Society of Human Resources Management. Even the scholarships offered, the children have to go through a tedious procedure to acquire them.

But offers like Huang's, say Elliott and others, is almost unheard of. "Outside of higher education, I've never seen that," says Carol Sladek, who heads up work-life consulting at Aon Hewitt. It's certainly the kind of thing that could help companies stand out.

Sladek says a health-care and retirement plan are mere table stakes these days, and "the way to differentiate yourself are through these work-life benefits. The crazier you can come up with, the more attention you're going to get."

Huang says his chief motivation was wanting to help employees become upwardly mobile. As someone who was raised by working class parents himself, he says he hasn't taken a salary in the last two years and doesn't anticipate any tax advantage for setting up the foundation.

Talking about the idea, he explains that he had noticed that many employees weren't able to attend an evening company event because they had limited transportation options.

"We'd just opened the Atlanta warehouse, and I realised a lot of folks didn't have cars," he says. "I could have started doing the Oprah thing, but that doesn't contribute to long-term mobility for their families. The common factor that does was education, and that was the one that resonated most."

When asked why he doesn't just pay employees more, he said he felt education would have a bigger impact. "Even if we gave everyone a 50 per cent raise, it's not a game changer for the future trajectory of their families."

In fact, Huang is quick to note that he doesn't see the program as a perk at all, since he's personally the one offering it. "We're one of the few companies that don't offer free lunches," he said. "You won't find a lot of swag around here."

Rather, he says he's making an investment in the families of the people who's helping him get the company off the ground, one he hopes will draw other CEOs' attention to the issue of inequality. "If they don't go through college, it's not someone else's problem," he said. "As the leader of this company, it should be my problem too.

This article originally appeared on The Washington Post